Laser-assisted microdissection makes it possible to isolate extremely small regions of a slice of tissue—which may comprise both fixed and living cell systems—down to individual cells. Moreover, with contactless laser manipulation, the microdissection of individual cell compartments can be ensured, for example cell organelles, chromosomes and chromosome fragments. Using a combination of PCR, cloning techniques and laser microdissection, it is possible to develop region-specific chromosomal samples for molecular cytogenetics. However, in these approaches based on laser microdissection, the fragments are collected using a glass needle which is made as fine as possible, in a manner comparable with glass needle microdissection. One development in laser microdissection resulted from the introduction of laser capture microdissection. In this method, a plastics material membrane is applied to the area which is to be analysed. The cells which are to be isolated are removed from the tissue thermally by locally fusing the film.
Laser pressure catapulting (LPC or LMPC) is an approach to isolating individual cells and cell groups which uses a different methodology. In this technique, a pulsed UV laser having power peaks of a few watts is directed onto the tissue region which is to be isolated. By contrast with laser capture microdissection, the tissue is applied to an ultra-fine carrier membrane, which has a thickness of a few μm. By means of a pulsed UV microlaser beam, cells or cell groups can be isolated in a targeted manner, and are isolated into a collecting device in a further operational step by means of a high-energy light pulse. Once the deposition has been verified optically, the isolated material is available for further biochemical methods.
Document WO 2005/107949 A1 discloses a method and a device for producing an analysis arrangement comprising discrete separate measurement regions for the purposes of biological, biochemical or chemical analysis.